Bollywood Agitprop

March 29, 2009 2:36 AM

Bhay ho phir bhi jai ho! Be afraid, and then be victorious! Jai Ho, the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire song, was adopted by the reigning Indian National Congress Party as it's theme song. In response, this parody was released by supporters of the violently Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. And you thought the Pussycat Dolls' version was bad.
posted by Methylviolet (15 comments total)

I just read this about Pankaj Mishra, which is very relevant to BJP politics.

"With nationalist demagogues rising to power in both India and Israel, Pankaj Mishra examines the parallel histories of violent partition, ethnic cleansing and militant patriotism that have led both countries into a moral wilderness."
posted by afu at 3:28 AM on March 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

Nice addition afu.
The BJP is a fascist party, as is Yisrael Beiteinu.
posted by hooptycritter at 4:45 AM on March 29, 2009

"Violently Hindu"

it sounds kind of awkward.
posted by mannequito at 5:00 AM on March 29, 2009

"this" parody? Shouldn't there have been a link to the parody, because I can't find it.
posted by kolophon at 5:24 AM on March 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

"Violently Hindu"

it sounds kind of awkward.

I think a hyphen between "Hindu" and "nationalist" would fix it and was probably meant.

Thanks for the link (initial link is to the parody ["Bhay ho"], kolophon). Does anyone have a full translation?
posted by palliser at 6:21 AM on March 29, 2009

I took a class partly on the BJP last year, what really struck me is how blatantly fascist, as in pro-Hitler fascist they are.

From Harper's Index: Percentage of Indian college students who cite Gandhi and Hitler, respectively, as models for leaders of India: 23, 17
posted by dunkadunc at 6:47 AM on March 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Actually, I hadn't thought anything about the Pussycat Dolls version. But yes, it is quite bad.
posted by jckll at 8:10 AM on March 29, 2009

I just read this about Pankaj Mishra, which is very relevant to BJP politics

I just read this by Pankaj Mishra, which is very relevant to BJP politics.
posted by afu at 8:14 AM on March 29, 2009

Peanut Butter Jelly Time Slumdog Millionaire Mashup
posted by homunculus at 10:17 AM on March 29, 2009

Here is the Bharatiya Janata Party parody.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:29 AM on March 29, 2009

From the captions in the parody video:

"India is burning and it's sickular rulers are mute spectators with hollow promises"

'sickular' as a pun on 'secular'? Really?
posted by delmoi at 12:26 PM on March 29, 2009

Duniyõ ne hamko diya kya?
posted by mds35 at 3:03 PM on March 29, 2009

'sickular' as a pun on 'secular'? Really?

If it's intentional (and not just a misspelling), it's of the same vein as "demoncrat" or "feminazi." Same sort of half-clever that comes off as double-dumb.
posted by luftmensch at 3:04 PM on March 29, 2009

If it's intentional (and not just a misspelling), it's of the same vein as "demoncrat" or "feminazi." Same sort of half-clever that comes off as double-dumb.

That's how I understood it. The rest of the English is spelled fine enough.

"Sickular". That's pretty good. Doesn't work to well when spoken, though. Just sounds like you can't pronounce "secluar". Needs polishing.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:40 PM on March 29, 2009

Welcome to the Indian election-fest. :-) While 'Jai Ho' might be the most prominent example of an electioneering song to the global audience, it is far from being the only one; film songs routinely get 'converted' to voice support for a particular political party. It's a big festival. :-)

From Pankaj Mishra's article:

Insurgencies have raged in Kashmir for two decades, and for much longer in North-East India, claiming tens of thousands of lives; led by Maoists, they have now erupted in central India.

That's roughly where I stopped reading the article. Maoist violence has been here since 1967; there's nothing "now" about Naxalite violence "erupting". Pankaj Mishra's problem, as always, is not that his politics is wrong - the rise of Modi is extremely troubling, and the continued improverishment of Muslim communities is real - but that he's intellectually lazy, always choosing easy sensationalism over deeper rigour.

Fact is, India's political "system" is much much more complex than he made it out to be; again, while not denying or trivializing (what I prefer calling as) radicalization of upper-middle India, it is much much more nuanced than Misra makes it out to be: as a political entity, the BJP is actually losing a lot of power in many states, TN, AP and UP as prime examples. This is extremely crucial, mostly because there's a very very good chance that this election, like the last, will be decided primarily in these states.

More to the point, I'd accuse Misra of a very very common fallacy: of presuming that most voters vote on 'national' issues such as security or relations with Pakistan or even, such useful projects as the Golden Quadrilateral.

They don't; they vote exclusively on very local issues, they vote for the person they're the most comfortable with, the person who promises the most roads and so on. This often gets translated to voting for the person from your caste or tribe; let me stress that, not necessarily religion, but caste. You can be from different religions, but you can be from the same caste, to explain the popularity of a Christian chief-minister in majority-Hindu Andhra Pradesh, for example.

The Indian electorate has a far greater political loyalty to geography, and by extension, community, than to religion.

Misra has basically ignored all of this and somehow tried to come up with this cute-sy comparison with Israel, which while seemingly profound, is actually worthless given that he seems to have somehow forgotten that India has a lot more sub-national politico-ethnic rivalries than Israel has.
posted by the cydonian at 9:08 PM on March 29, 2009 [2 favorites]